L’illusionista;

Since we decided to go to a party on Valentine’s Day to mix things up a bit, Saturday will be our designated night of staying in and making dinner, our normal way of marking the holiday.
I proposed to add a twist to the festivities, however–using a rewards certificate from Amazon.com, I managed to get a [...]

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I apertivi;

One small part of Piemontese life that we didn’t experience extensively was the bar culture–specifically, the before-dinner-drinks, or apertivi.  Most of our time spent in town (or in Torino) was in the afternoon and we were content to sip on either a beer or a glass of wine with a slab of pizza to tide [...]

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Beneath the vines of California wine;

Until I was flipping through my dad’s Weekend section of the WSJ last weekend, I had no idea of the historical signifcance of today:  it’s the 75th anniversary of Repeal Day, or the day that Prohibition was legally reversed here in the United States.

(source)

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Beneath the vines of California wine;

The Box Wine Chronicles, Part  I:
Back in February during my unexpected long weekend in Oak Brook, tucked away in the suburbs of Chicago, I was fortunate as my hotel was linked to an upscale outdoor mall that happened to boast quite a few restaurants from the Lettuce Entertain You company, which boasts restaurants featuring everything [...]

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Orichiette (o orzo) al “x” fromaggio;

Almost a year ago I picked up a copy of Food & Wine magazine that touted “Italy’s Best Recipies.”  touting some of each main “food” region’s best specialties.  This led to us making Piadina with Ricotta, Proscuitto and Arugula, which is freaking delicious, but it also left us with a tub of ricotta cheese that [...]

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Beneath the vines of California wine;

Contrary to the title of this segment, I am generally not a fan of California wines.  Not because they aren’t tasty, but because they often seem a bit…overpriced.  Thanks to a much wider, global market to source wine from it’s so much easier to find a decent bottle of wine for less than $10, much [...]

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The autumn leaves drift by my window, the autumn leaves of red and gold;

The sudden turn for the chilly has made me want to seek out comfort food in a serious way.  Saturday marked the first day since we’ve been back in the States that wasn’t lovely and temperate, and prompted me to lobby for a warm, rich sauced pasta for dinner that night in lieu of one [...]

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Beneath the vines of California wine;

In my last installment, I alluded to the fact that for casual, anyday use, I tend to prefer juice-style glassware to stemmed only to reduce the breakage inevitability.  Since then, I’ve found a number of contenders, some good, some serviceable, and others…well, they aren’t my first choice.

The European Wine Glass:  my first love, found initally [...]

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Beneath the vines of California wine;

Perhaps due to my registry stalking, I have glassware on the brain in a big way.  Oh, who am I kidding–I’ve had an odd fascination with wine glasses for even longer than it was legal for me to drink–the multitude of options out there would fascinate me.  I’d browse Pier One to look for candles, [...]

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Beneath the vines of California wine;

A post on one of my daily reads reminded me that I have been severely remiss in not sharing one of my particular passions with my ten (hey, I’m feeling generous today) readers–wine!  So here at Arial is not Helvetica, a new regular column is here, somewhat aptly named “Beneath the vines of California wine;” (from one of my favorite Decemberists [...]

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